A Crown Law appeal against the quashing of a perjury charge against a Tonga law lord is expected to be heard next week.
The indictment, against Lord Ramsay Dalgety, related to a statement he made at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the sinking of the ferry Princess Ashika resulting in the deaths of 74 people in August 2009.
Four people, including New Zealand businessman John Jonesse, and the Shipping Corporation of Polynessia, were found guilty this week on a variety of charges relating to the sinking.
Jonesse, the corporation's former chief executive, was jailed for five years, while the other three men received lesser sentences and the corporation was fined $1.4 million.
The Matangi Tonga website reported that the Tonga Court of Appeal would hear eight cases next week, including an appeal by the Crown against a judgment by Justice Robert Shuster to quash a perjury indictment against Lord Dalgety, secretary of the shipping corporation.
Lord Dalgety, 65, moved to Tonga from Scotland in 1991 and was made a law lord in 2008 by King George Tupou V, and at his initial appearance before the inquiry in January last year admitted the Princess Ashika was an old "rust bucket" .
But he denied revising a memorandum of agreement for purchasing the vessel.
"I'm not going to be the fall guy for signing this contract or agreeing to it," Lord Dalgety, a specialist in admiralty law in Scotland, told the inquiry.
NZPA